NC Humanities Council invests in eight projects


by Jennifer McCollum, Ph.D.
Public Information Officer
North Carolina Humanities Council

Greensboro -— The North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has awarded $58,950 in grants for public humanities projects. All funded programs are free and open to the public.

Projects supported by the North Carolina Humanities Council are vital to its commitment to serve as an advocate for lifelong learning and thoughtful dialogue about all facets of human life. Through grants and public programs, the Humanities Council facilitates the exploration and celebration of the many voices and stories of North Carolina’s cultures and heritage.

North Carolina Humanities Council awards during this grant cycle include:

  • $10,000 to the Ash County Arts County and Ashe County Public Library of West Jefferson for “On the Same Page,” a fall 2010 literary festival in western North Carolina whose focus is “reading and writing about North Carolina people, places, and traditions.” Activities include creative writing workshops, readings, and An Hour with an Author sessions. The festival culminates with an On the Same Plate luncheon featuring authors in conversation. Writers and scholars scheduled to participate include Fred Chappell, Georgann Eubanks, John Hart, D.G. Martin, Robert Morgan, and Daniel Wallace.

    Contact project director Jane Lonon at jlashearts@skybest.com or 336.846.2787.

  • $9,430 to the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe for “Haliwa Indian School Documentation Project, Phase II,” the continuation of a project examining the Indian Schools of Hollister as a “dominant institution of identity” for the American Indians of Halifax, Warren, Franklin, and Nash counties. Phase II begins with the schools’ closures and reveals how subsequent traditions and organizations replaced them as “Institutions of Indianness.”

    Contact project director Maynard Ealing at mealing@aol.com or 252.586.4017, ext. 247.

  • $8,830 to the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival Association for “Coming Home: The Fifth Annual Carolina Mountains Literary Festival,” a two-day event in the town square of Burnsville on September 10-11, 2010. Programming exploring the topic of “home” includes a seventeen-county community book-read featuring the novels of Tony Earley, scholar-led panel discussions, author readings, storytelling, how-to sessions on oral history, and special presentations designed for high school students, and those interested in regional culture and the connections between literature and business.

    Contact project director Dan Barron at director@amyregionallibrary.org or 828.682.4476.

  • $7,690 to Wake Forest University/Z. Smith Reynolds Library for “Single Threads Unbraided: A Celebration of the Work of A.R. Ammons,” a symposium in Winston-Salem on November 15-16, 2010, examining the poetry, visual art, and letters of one of North Carolina’s most distinguished writers. Symposium components include presentations by nationally known speakers, the unveiling of twenty Ammons original watercolor paintings for permanent display in the Z. Smith Reynolds Library, and a one-act play based on Ammon’s love letters. Playwright Michael Huie performs his play in the Ring Theater of the Scales Fine Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on November 15.

    Contact project director Lynn Sutton at suttonls@wfu.edu or 336.758.5090.

  • $7,000 to Tri-Community College of Murphy for “Mountain Work: A Social Commentary,” a video by students documenting the social, historical, and cultural meanings of work in their mountain communities. Public events planned for spring 2011 are oral history methods workshops, a videography and photography presentation, and video premiere.

    Contact project director Terrie M. Kelly at tkelly@tricountycc.edu or 828.835.4203.

  • $6,000 to Wayne County Reads of Goldsboro for “A Country, A People,” whose feature event is an exhibit of photographs taken by U.S. military troops recently deployed in Afghanistan. The project coincides with Wayne County Reads 2011, featuring Greg Mortenson’s Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Project components include veteran-led storytelling sessions, an exhibit of the artwork and letters of children whose parents served in Afghanistan, a panel discussion on Afghanistan’s history, culture, and society, Internet question-and-answer with military still actively serving, an interactive map, and Afghanistan Food and Music Festival in February 2011.

    The project director is Sarah Merritt at sarah@artsinwayne.org or 919.736.3300.

  • $5,000 to the Community Empowerment Fund of Chapel Hill for “Micro-finance Narratives in Durham, NC,” a documentary film telling the personal stories of two micro-entrepreneurs who participated in the Community Empowerment Fund, a student-run organization that assists people of low-wealth in establishing economic independence by offering small business training courses, interest-free business loans, and a savings program. The documentary will address such issues as attitudes toward the American dream, expressions of individuality through work, and cultural conceptions of poverty. Public viewings of the film are planned for October 2010.

    Contact project director Alexis Seccombe at alexis@email.unc.edu or 919.923.8066.

  • $5,000 to the Southern Documentary Fund of Durham for the completion of “Landscapes of the Heart: The Elizabeth Spencer Story,” a documentary film about Southern writer and Chapel Hill resident Elizabeth Spencer. Film producer Sharon Swanson explains, “By telling Spencer’s story, we are also recounting the personal story of a privileged white woman who bucked the twin systems of racism and gender equality in post-World War II in her work and paid the cost both in ostracism from her hometown and estrangement from her family.” The project title derives from Spencer’s 1988 memoir.

    Contact project director Sharon Swanson at Sharon_swanson@earthlink.net or 919.942.3205.

  • The North Carolina Humanities Council is a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Humanities Council supports through grants and public programs vital conversations that nurture the cultures and heritage of North Carolina. In addition to grants and publications, the Council offers the Teachers Institute, a free professional education development program for NC’s K-12 public school teachers; Road Scholars, a speakers bureau bringing scholars and NC communities together to explore issues in the public humanities; Let’s Talk About It, a library discussion series of literature and film in partnership with the North Carolina Center for the Book; Museum on Main Street (MoMS), a traveling exhibition in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution and rural NC towns statewide; NC Roadwork, an initiative encouraging the examination of local NC history related to routes of human passage; and Literature and Medicine, a scholar-facilitated book discussion group for hospital staff to reflect on the larger mission of medicine. Learn more about the work of the North Carolina Humanities Council at www.nchumanities.org.